A Bit of Unadorned Education v. Bailout Funding Context

Offered without comment, but with the very large public school education number first.

• $519 billion: *Estimated total expenditures in the United States for public K-12 education SY 2008-2009.
• $123 billion: Amount of American International Group (AIG) bailout to this point.
• $200 billion: Amount of outstanding financial liability for AIG, hence another $80 billion additional bailout funds may be "necessary".
• $3.2 billion: Amount of money spent by banks, insurance and mortgage companies lobbying Congress in the past decade.
• $700 billion: Number often thrown around by Treasury Secretary Paulson and others regarding the expected funds needed to bailout various banks, insurance and mortgage companies in the U.S..
• $536 billion: Figure stated by German chancellor Angela Merkel as the amount of that country's bailout.
• $5 trillion: Estimated actual bailout figure for the U.S., as estimated by possible whack-job (and possible mere accurate prognosticator) Marc Faber.
  
• $531 trillion: Estimated "value" of various derivatives worldwide, arcane hedge investment vehicles, many based on mortgages which are plummeting in "value" themselves.
• 49.8 million: Number of public school K-12 students in SY 2008-2009.
• 268,400: Number of employees in the "Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents" category according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  

*Note: The education figure includes all expenditures by federal and state governments, as well as funds disbursed by school districts around the country. Most of that figure comes from non-federal entities. The annual U.S. Department of Education budget is around $56 billion.

Have a nice Monday everyone, whether you get the day off for "Hush, hush" Columbus Day "shhh....." or not. I'll be spending the black market holiday counting backwards from 5 trillion while teaching 1984, The Outsiders and any other subversive texts I can thrust before the eyes of my students.

P.S.: And speaking of financial markets and black market holidays, I discovered tonight that the Tokyo Stock Exchange was closed today (Monday) due to Japan's "Health and Sports Day". I know, we get Columbus, they get fitness. (Insert profound insight into comparative cultural systems or a simple joke here)